Crucifix on police badges 'a fossil': politician

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An local politician from the Spanish north-African enclave of Ceuta has requested police badges without a crucifix should be available for police officers who want them, calling the symbol of the cross "a fossil".

Independent politician Rachid Ahmed, previously with Spain's ruling Popular Party, has made a formal request to Interior Minister, Jorge Fernández Díaz asking that officers who don't wish to wear a badge containing the force's golden crucifix should not be forced to do so.

The politician, who left the PP in 2014 after seven years in Ceuta's parliament brought up the issue at the request of Spanish police officers, reported Spanish daily 20 minutos.

"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion," Ahmed says in the letter, in which he also refers to the crucifix as "a fossil".

The badge of the Spanish police force currently includes a cross on top of a golden crown something which, says Ahmed "could be damaging when you take into account the rules and composition of Spanish society".

Ahmed said he made the request after consulting with police officers from Spain’s national police force.

He said if the request was carried out it would "result in a positive image that all Spanish citizens were served by all of Spain’s police force".

Ahmed believes that the presence of a crucifix on the emblem of Spain’s national police is "a relic of strongly religious regimes and a homogenous society".